Tap holes healing, or not

[Clan Delaney]

I took pictures of some of the tap holes in the handful of maples I harvest from. All these taps were pulled mid-April '08. All holes were 5/16 with tree saver spouts.

The first two pics are from my largest tree - a three tapper. Despite it's seemingly healthy output, I don't see much in the way of healing.

The last two pics are from a smaller 2-tapper, also a good producer. You can see that not only has the tap hole healed over, but there's been enough growth to pop off the plastic marker I used to mark the hole of the brad holding it in place!

Can I (or should I) be making assumptions about the health of the tree based on how the older tap holes heal? I'm inclined to believe that a larger, older tree wouldn't be growing at the same rate as a smaller, younger tree and would therefore be slower to heal over an old tap hole.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

CD,
I was looking at some trees this morning and trying to figure out which scars were the ones from this spring versus earlier years. My experience is that younger, vigorously growing trees heal very rapidly. My older trees take much more time to completely cover the hole over. Some of my old 5ft diameter trees have been tapped continuously for 150 years. They heal slowly but seem to continue to produce well. I am sure that for years they were way over tapped. As a kid I remember trees with 5 and 6 buckets. One that was over 7 feet in diameter got 9 buckets 1 year. I max out at 3 taps per tree now. I think the slow healing may be partly because this tapping belt has much scar wood and the growth in the area is slowed as a result.
Doug

[forester1]

Doug is right. It depends on the growth rate of the tree. Look up, and see how much crown room there is. A tree with lots of crown room to expand grows faster usually. Large trees growth rate slows, and so the tapholes will take longer to close.

[WMF]

Some trees heal quick and some slow and I have never been able to predict why.

On a side note I would not leave a nail in a maple tree for any reason.

[Clan Delaney]

On a side note I would not leave a nail in a maple tree for any reason.

Me neither. They'll be out before the upcoming season. They're half inch brads and when I put them in, it was only halfway - so I'd have room underneath the head to pull them out at the start of the next season, without gouging the tree. I'm going to need a new method of marking the previous year's taps. A spot of paint, perhaps.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

CLAN
what is the reason for marking last years tap??

RICH

[Clan Delaney]

CLAN
what is the reason for marking last years tap??

RICH

I'm going to go with "Because I Thought I Had To" for $100, Alex :)

This is from the Mass Maple (http://www.massmaple.org/myo.html) site:


2. Drill the 7/16" hole 3" deep at a convenient height. Look for unblemished bark and do not bore directly over or under a former tap hole or closer than 4" from the side of an old tap hole.

I figured that in order to avoid drilling the next year's tap too close to an old tap, I should know where that old tap was. Is this the part where you tell me that I'm way over complicating things? Go ahead. I can take it.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

CD,
Usually you can easily see the scars from previous tapping. With a good eye and knowing what to look for, 30 year old scars can be spotted. Try establishing a pattern of tapping. Move in a specific direction around the tree and up or down a few inches each year. By the time you get all the way around the tree, there should be several inches of new growth covering the old tap hole.
Doug

[lewi927]

What's the second hole beneath the larger one on the smaller maple?

[Clan Delaney]

What's the second hole beneath the larger one on the smaller maple?

That's the head of a 1/2" brad nail I used to attach the red plastic tag you see in the top of the pic. When I tacked it in in May, it stuck out almost a quarter inch. The tree has grown so much that the head of that brad is now recessed, and the tag actually popped off!

[RileySugarbush]

Like a smashed fingernail, the damage from the tap hole can extend well into the future...

Look at this split from an old sugar. Tapped in 1975, felled in 2003.

[brookledge]

Clan
I don't think you need to worry about marking your holes. I've been tapping for 34 years and have never marked a hole with anything. As your tree heals, the scar never really goes away. you will be able to see it for years. Last year I began tapping a bush that was last tapped around 1980 and I could see where the taps had been
Keith

[Clan Delaney]

Would I be right to say that this is more art than science? Don't tap too close to older year's tap holes as long as they're obvious? Sounds like what I'd been doing anyway. There I go again, over complicating....

[cncaboose]

C D if you send me an email address I'll forward you an article by Brian Chabot of Cornell's maple program that outlines the latest info on tapping guidelines. Very informative and may change your approach to tapping. My email is cncaboos@twcny.rr.com Ian

[maple flats]

Thompson's Tree Farm, if you really mean you have a 7' diameter sugar maple you should enter it in the NYS record book. I think I found on a tree I thought was extra super sized was really just slightly over average for real old maples. measure it and be sure, then contact the official registry of large trees in NYS.

[cncaboose]

C D, Back to your original question about the big tree not healing. You might get a flashlight and look deeper in the hole. I thought the same about some of my biggest trees until I was told to look deeper. I was pleasantly surprised to see decent growth. The bark on some of these guys is really thick and the growth layer can be almost an inch below the surface where you don't readily see it.

[Jeff E]

There have been some very good tapping guidance on here. The article that discussed tapping based on tree growth was the most logical, I thought.

A large tree that is no longer growing vigerously needs to be tapped reasonably, so the tree will not run out of good, white sap wood because of all the staining in the tree from overtapping.

For example, if a 10" tree has a circumferance of about 30", and you space your tap holes 2" apart, you will go completely around the tree in 15 years of tapping.
For you to keep tapping into new, unstained wood, the tree would have to grow its RADIUS the same or more than your tap depth. That would mean if you tap 2" deep, your 10" tree would have to be a 14" tree in 15 years, growing at a rate of 1/4" of diameter every year.

If the tree is only growing at a rate of 1/8" per year, you should only tap 1" deep.